Houston Fire Department EMS medics transport a man with possible COVID-19 symptoms to a hospital on August 10, 2020 in Houston, Texas.  (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

NEW YORK / PARIS / SAN PAULO / CAIRO / LONDON - COVID-19 deaths worldwide passed 800,000 as cases rose to more than 23 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg.

US

US cases rose 47,581 on Friday, an 0.9% increase that matches the average daily rise of the previous seven days, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg. While overall cases have been dropping in recent weeks, there were 1,102 deaths, the fourth day in a row over 1,000.

Cases and deaths in Florida slowed, while both increased in Arizona. Georgia became the 10th state to pass 5,000 deaths.

Russia

Russia registered 4,852 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 956,749, the country's COVID-19 response center said in a statement Sunday.

Meanwhile, 73 new deaths were reported, taking the nationwide count to 16,383.

Moscow, the country's worst-hit region, reported 611 new cases, taking its tally of infections to 257,124, the response center said.

According to the statement, 770,639 people have recovered so far, including 3,162 over the past day.

French

France reported 3,602 new cases after two consecutive days with more than 4,000, though infections remain at levels last seen in May, according to government data. 

Deaths increased by nine to 30,512, the fewest in six days. The toll compares with more than 1,000 deaths on several days in April at the peak of France’s virus crisis.

The new coronavirus is circulating four times more among people under 40 in France than over among 65-year-olds, France’s health minister said, though he warned that contamination was on the rise among the elderly and more vulnerable too.

Italy

The Italian government is not considering new lockdown to curb coronavirus infections, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said in a newspaper interview on Sunday, despite a steady rise in new cases over the past month.

Italy reported 1,071 cases, the first time since mid-May the country has registered more than 1,000 new infections.

As many Italians return from holidays abroad and some of the country’s vacation spots popular with foreigners have been near capacity, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government has shut down nightclubs and required face coverings in public at night.

UK

The chief medical officers of the United Kingdom have said children should return to school after the summer holidays, warning that missing out on their education posed much bigger risks to them than catching COVID-19.

The rare joint statement from the top health advisers to the governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland represents a boost for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has said getting children back to school is a national priority.

The UK had the most new cases since June as the country continues to step up testing. 

Infections rose by 1,288 to 324,601, according to government data. That’s the most since June 20 and above the previous seven-day average of 992. Deaths increased by 18 to 41,423.

Brazil

Virus-related deaths in Brazil increased by 892 in the latest 24-hour period to 114,250, an 0.8% rise that’s less than the 1% average over the previous two weeks. 

The Health Ministry also reported another 50,032 cases, bringing the total closer to 3.6 million — the second-highest total behind the US.

Mexico

Mexico reported 6,482 new infections, bringing the hard-hit country’s total to 556,216, according to data released by the Health Ministry. There were 644 more deaths, taking the toll to 60,254.

The World Health Organization said this week that Mexico’s limited testing meant the pandemic was “clearly under-recognized,” and that Mexico was only performing about three tests per 100,000 people.

Chile

The Chilean Ministry of Health reported on Saturday 1,926 new cases of the COVID-19 for a total of 395,708 cases in the country, with 10,792 deaths.

Additionally, 1,058 people are hospitalized in intensive care units, with 773 of these patients on ventilators and 166 in critical condition.

Health authorities reported that 29,727 more PCR tests were performed in the last 24 hours, for a total of 2,172,028 tests administered to date.

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic registered 694 new COVID-19 cases and 21 more deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the national count to 90,561 and the death toll to 1,554, the Ministry of Public Health said Saturday.

Currently, 273 people are being treated in intensive care units in hospitals across the country.

Ecuador

The Ecuadoran Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that the country registered 608 new cases and 29 more deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 107,089 and the number of deaths to 6,277.

The ministry added that another 3,634 deaths that were likely caused by COVID-19 have been registered, but these have yet to be officially confirmed.

The ministry said that a sizable percentage of the total number of infections in the country are concentrated in the province of Pichincha, the current epicenter of the virus in the country, which has registered 22,209 cases.

Africa CDC

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has urged the continent to avoid coronavirus "prevention fatigue."

The urgent call was made by John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC, who noted "a slight decrease" in COVID-19 infection rates on the continent, and said this "gives some signs of hope that we are beginning to bend the curve slowly," an AU statement issued on Saturday quoted Nkengasong as saying.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 39,033 after 1,368 new COVID-19 positive cases were confirmed on Saturday, the country's Ministry of Health said.

The ministry said in a statement that 25 more patients succumbed to illnesses related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the East African country to 662.

Morocco 

Morocco registered 1,565 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number in the North African country to 50,812, the health ministry said.

In addition, 41 new deaths were reported, taking the death toll to 858, and the total recoveries increased by 841 to 35,040 in the last 24 hours in Morocco.

Uganda

Uganda's Health Ministry on Saturday reported 318 new cases of COVID-19, which took the total number of infections in the country to 2,166.

Ruth Aceng, minister of health, told reporters that 153 prison inmates and a staff in the northern district of Amuru, 20 health workers, 136 alerts and contacts and eight Uganda cross border truck drivers tested positive for the virus over the past 24 hours.

Libya 

The National Center for Disease Control of Libya reported 414 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country so far to more than 10,000.

The Center said in a statement earlier Saturday that it received a total of 2,562 suspected samples, of which 414 were tested positive, adding six patients have recovered and seven died.

Tunisia 

Tunisia on Saturday reported 131 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 2,738.

A total of 1,434 patients have recovered from the virus in Tunisia while 68 others have died so far, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Health.

Rwanda

The Rwandan Ministry of Health on Saturday reported a record daily high of 109 new COVID-19 cases, including 81 from mass testing on market vendors in the capital city Kigali.

The rise brought the national tally to 2,889, with 1,754 recoveries and 11 deaths, according to the ministry's daily update.

The central African nation, recognized by the World Health Organization as a country able to suppress COVID-19 early, has seen a spike of new cases recently, especially in Kigali.

Egypt 

Egypt registered on Saturday 89 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest since April 4, increasing the total infections in the country to 97,237, said the Health Ministry.

It is the first day for Egypt's COVID-19 daily infections to fall below 100, after they started to surpass 100 on April 5.

Kenya 

The number of COVID-19 cases in Kenya reached 32,118 on Saturday, after 355 people tested positive to the disease amid lingering concern over the slow pace of flattening the curve.

Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary for health, said that 339 Kenyans and 16 foreigners were confirmed positive from 5,724 samples that were tested in the last 24 hours, bringing cumulative tests to 417,804.